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- Feb 11, 2007
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Dar digs in as common market deadline nears
By The Citizen Team
With the signing of the East African Community (EAC) Common Market Protocol barely a month away, Tanzania has maintained that it would not sign the document if it does not meet its expectations.
However, the stance voiced by East African Cooperation deputy minister Mohammed Aboud when he spoke to The Citizen yesterday contradicts what was agreed in Kampala on Tuesday.
Delegates to the 9th round of negotiations on the common market agreed to have the set of rules penned down, with or without the pending issues.
The High-Level Task Force, a team of experts set up by member states to negotiate on their behalf, said 95 per cent of the work had been done "with significant consensus".
But Mr Aboud said yesterday Tanzania's position was still the same, adding that the Government had already presented its position, which other members had to consider.
"We have made it amply clear that land issues should not be part of the common market protocol this is a sensitive issue on which we cannot let others bulldoze us," he said.
He noted that the EAC member states had contrasting laws, policies and regulations on land.
"Our position (on land issues) as we prepare to enter the common market has not changed. We firmly believe that our policies, laws and regulations are different," Mr Aboud said.
"We will sign the agreement, but we shall stick to our stand the protocol must take into account Tanzania's position and we've made this clear to other member states."
The stand is yet another clear indication that the partner states cannot fully agree on some crucial issues.
The negotiations, which have dragged on since April last year, have been bogged down by the failure of the member states to reach a consensus on issues such as access to land for non-citizens and free movement of labour.
Opening Tuesday's talks, EAC deputy secretary general (projects and programmes) Julius Onen challenged the experts involved in the negotiations to draft a protocol that would be in the best interests of the region.
"The fundamental aspiration is to have a good protocol. And a good protocol is the one where there is consensus by all the parties," he told members of the task force.
Mr Onen asaid there could never be a "perfect" agreement on anything, and stressed that the most important thing was for the parties to reach a common consensus that would serve the region's interests.
The head of delegations from Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda agreed to use the last round of the negotiations in Kampala to unblock all the "bracketed areas" and have the draft protocol ready for signing by the EAC heads of state during their summit in Arusha later this month.
Mr Onen said EAC member states were yet to fully agree on some "thorny issues" and some proposals, but said 95 per cent of the task had been accomplished.
"Since the first sessions started, a lot of work has been done that led to consensus on a large number of the provisions of the proposed protocol," he said.
The negotiations for the EAC Common Market started in April last year after almost a two-year delay, and were initially due to be concluded last December.
However, the deadline was pushed forward to this month to be followed by the protocol's ratification in June. The tentative date for the commencement of the Common Market is next year.
Eight rounds of negotiations have taken place in as many months in Kigali, Nairobi, Zanzibar, Bujumbura, Kisumu and Kampala.
Outstanding issues in the negotiations have been free movement of goods, persons, workers, capital and services, all aimed at enhancing intra-regional trade and investment, as well as the right of establishment and residence.
Others are matters pertaining to economic and financial sector policy coordination, transport policy, consumer welfare, common commercial and social policies and environmental management.
Also under the Common Market draft protocol are cooperation in statistics, research and technological development; cooperation in intellectual property rights, institutional framework, industrial development and agriculture and food security.
Tanzania was recently criticised by some fellow EAC member countries for opposing the clause that would allow citizens from other member states to access and acquire land in the country.
Kenya, in particular, has said Tanzania's opposition to various clauses contained in the draft protocol was enough indication that the country was dragging its feet in the EAC integration process.
However, East African Cooperation ministry officials have downplayed the allegations, saying Tanzania's land remains accessible to serious investors from all over the world.
Mr Owora Richard-Othieno, the acting head of EAC directorate of corporate communications and public affairs, told The Citizen from Kampala that the final draft of the Common Market Protocol would be concluded on Saturday.
The proposals contained in the draft protocol would be tabled before a meeting of the multi-sectoral council of the EAC Common Market Protocol scheduled for April 8 and 9 in Kampala. The meeting will give guidance on some issues.
The protocol will then be presented to the seventh meeting of the EAC Sectoral Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs scheduled for April 16 and 17 in Dar es Salaam for consideration before being tabled before the heads of state on April 26.
Mr Uledi Mussa, the director of trade, investments and productive sectors in the East African Cooperation ministry, is leading Tanzania's delegation to the talks.
Trade in services, common transport policy and resident policy issues, competition and consumer products and industrialisation and cooperation in intellectual property rights are the outstanding issues that the Kampala meeting has to address before the April 29 deadline for the signing of the protocol.
"The key issues for the common market are more less in place. What is outstanding are the various schedules for implementation, which are basically technical not political," Mr Mussa said.
The EAC Customs Union, which is the entry point of the community, has been operational since January 2005. The common market is the second phase of the integration process.
Reported by Joseph Olanyo in Kampala; Zephania Ubwani in Arusha and Vicent Mnyanyika in Dar es Salaam
